Idaho quarterback Jack Layne faces Idaho State again, this time as QB1

MOSCOW, Idaho – For Idaho State University football fans, this is the stuff of nightmares.

Two years ago, as an untested freshman filling in for an injured Gevani McCoy, Jack Layne threw for 255 yards and a touchdown in a 38-7 regular-season-ending Idaho victory.

A year ago, filling in again for an injured McCoy, Layne lit up the Bengals for 275 yards and six touchdowns as Idaho won 63-21.

What could happen when the Vandals again close out the regular season Saturday at Idaho State?

“It’s funny how it works out like that,” Layne said. “Three of my six career starts will have been against the Bengals.”

The Vandals (8-3, 5-2 Big Sky Conference) come into Pocatello with a four-game winning streak, ranked seventh in the STATS Perform poll and looking to secure a Football Championship Subdivision playoff bye and a second-round home game.

Idaho State emerged from the depths of a 3-8 season last year under a new coach, Cody Hawkins, and is 5-6, 3-4. But in their latest game, the Bengals were run over by Eastern Washington University 77-42, a woeful performance that cost defensive coordinator Josh Runda his job.

Layne is putting behind him injuries to his collarbone and the wrist on his throwing arm that cost him eight games on two occasions this season – seven games after being hurt in the season opener against Oregon, and a game against Portland State after bruising a bone in his wrist.

He returned for Idaho’s 31-24 win against Weber State a week ago. Against the Wildcats, Layne showed the qualities that got him named Idaho’s starter to open the season are none the worse for his long stints of rehab. He passed for 283 yards and three touchdowns and ran three times for 22 yards.

Idaho coach Jason Eck has called Layne perhaps the most cerebral quarterback he has coached. His lively arm that delivers pinpoint-accurate passes from a three-quarters delivery is as good as ever, and for his latest return to Pocatello, Layne has a new sidekick.

In 2022, future All-America Hayden Hatten caught nine passes for 158 yards and a touchdown against ISU. Last year, he grabbed five passes for 74 yards and two touchdowns against the Bengals.

Now redshirt freshman Mark Hamper is making a case to be Hatten’s legitimate heir after connecting with Layne for eight receptions for 187 yards and three touchdowns against Weber State, which got Hamper named the Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week.

“The dude is just the most passionate football player I have ever played with,” Hamper said of Layne.

Hamper said Layne watches more tape and prepares more meticulously than any other teammate .

“He motivates me to try to do that,” Hamper said.

“I really like to be prepared,” Layne responded.

Watching all the tape he does is not a chore for Layne.

“I love football,” he said, and there has been a progression in what he sees.

“It starts with coverages,” he said. “… this year, I am better at recognizing things. Blitz pattern recognition has really come up for me.”

Eck said Layne and Hamper are a brain trust for the offense.

“They talk about what they are seeing with coverages and how to adjust,” Eck said. “They have real good chemistry, and they are both students of the game.”

“He tells me what he sees, and I tell him what I see,” Hamper said.

Layne also has great confidence in targeting Hamper.

“He catches the ball really good,” Layne said. “You can tell when a guy has natural hands.”

At 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, Hamper “is physical,” Layne said. “He knows how to use his body to create space.”

Hamper, from West Linn High School, Layne, from Lake Oswego High School, and Jack Wagner, from Tualatin High School, who replaced Layne in seven games when he was injured, all played against each other in Oregon.

“I have caught touchdown passes from both of them (at Idaho),” Hamper said of Layne and Wagner. “(In high school), I picked both of them off. That’s a cool stat.”

Layne remembers it.

“My senior year, we were the No. 1 team in the state,” he said. “They came over on our Senior Night, and he picked me off to win the game for them.”

But that’s long gone.

“(Now) we locker next to each other,” Layne said. “We are always talking about ball and about life.”

The weeks he spent recovering from the broken collarbone and the bruised wrist were not wasted, Layne said. In the early stages of getting over the collarbone injury, with his arm in a sling, Layne looked forlorn joining the other injured Vandals near the corner of an end zone for rehab exercises.

But when he got out of the sling, he got a new perspective in helping to coach the scout team.

“I want to go into coaching,” Layne said.

But for the present, after returning to the field healthy, there’s another crack at ISU and playoffs coming into view when the brackets are announced Sunday.

“Practices are so much fun,” Layne said.